Bend it like Presley: Jonathan-Rhys Meyers steps into the King's blue suede shoes in a CBS Sunday movie.

CBS

During the crucial May sweeps ratings period, CBS is devoting more than a quarter of its prime-time schedule next week to the larger-than-life rock 'n' roll legend who died nearly 30 years ago.

The projects:

•Elvis, a four-hour miniseries (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT and Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET/PT) starring Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Bend It Like Beckham) as the King, takes the singer from his teens to a 1968 comeback TV special. It's the first Elvis biopic to include his master recordings, including renditions of Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel.

•Elvis by the Presleys, a two-hour special (May 13, 8 p.m. ET/PT), includes interviews with ex-wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie, as well as rare family video and pictures. The multimedia project includes a book and a double CD that features never-released private recordings. (Related story: Family has a story to share)

One might think Elvis is everywhere with promotions on CBS' Viacom cable cousins, such as MTV and VH1. And CBS' Elvis Week joins such unrelated Presley projects as the Broadway show All Shook Up and another Tuesday CD release, Elvis: Live from Las Vegas, as testament to continued public interest 27 years after his death. Forbes magazine ranked the singer 2004's top-earning deceased celebrity.

"People connect with Elvis for so many different reasons. At the core is this magnificent voice," says Todd Morgan of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which cooperated with the CBS projects.

"Really great music with a really great voice — that's pretty timeless. And he had tremendous charisma."

One purpose of the many projects is to introduce a younger generation, including many born after Presley's death, to his music, movies and life story, Morgan says. Last year, half of the 600,000 visitors to Graceland, Presley's famed Memphis mansion, were 35 or younger.

Presley's business empire needs younger fans to replace aging baby boomers who grew up with the King, says Christopher Sharrett, Seton Hall University communications professor and a longtime Elvis fan. The task is made more difficult by a fragmented audience in a hip-hop age, he says.

In addition to the master recordings, the miniseries' producers also had access to Presley's archives and to Graceland, where some scenes were filmed. The experience was invaluable for Rhys Meyers, 27, who was born in Dublin just three weeks before Presley's death in 1977.

"When I first went (to Graceland), I went down to the grave first. I tried to get a feeling for what it was like to be there. I sat for 30 minutes and said a couple of prayers," Rhys Meyers says. "I thought I'd get really nervous when I went into the house. But I felt more at ease playing Elvis having seen Elvis' house."

The Graceland filming and master recordings give Elvis a unique place, but the involvement of Presley's estate didn't compromise efforts to tell a story of career highs and some personal lows, such as drug use, executive producer Howard Braunstein says.

"They read the scripts and provided valuable input. There were a lot of factual things they helped us with," he says.

Presley business interests also didn't influence the decision to focus on a 16-year period of Presley's life, from his rise to superstar status in the 1950s, through a lull in the mid-1960s, to the successful comeback special on NBC in 1968.

"There wasn't any effort on their part to whitewash Elvis," says Randy Quaid, who plays Presley's manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker.

Elvis starts with the teenage Presley as a musical hopeful, supported in his dreams by his mother, Gladys (Camryn Manheim). His father, Vernon (Robert Patrick), counsels more practical career options.

When success comes after recording sessions at Sun Studios, Presley eventually is partnered with Parker. His management of Presley's career leads to great fame, wealth and Hollywood stardom but also to the stifling of Presley's artistic desires in music and acting.

"The Colonel is kind of a heavy," Quaid says. "But again, Elvis was born with a million dollars' worth of talent. After he met the Colonel, he got the million dollars."

The miniseries follows Presley into the military, shows his deep sadness after Gladys' death and introduces 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (Antonia Bernath), who would become his wife and the mother of his daughter, Lisa Marie.

Braunstein says a four-hour miniseries wasn't enough time to cover Presley's entire life, which included a later Las Vegas period that included financial success but also an often-caricatured expanding waistline and artistic decline.

"We made a creative choice to use the '68 comeback special as the seminal moment, the bookend device. It was a pivotal moment in his life creatively and emotionally," he says.

Another creative choice was the selection of Rhys Meyers after a widespread search. "He has a certain style and look" that fit the role, Braunstein says.

As for whether the Irish actor could capture the voice of the Mississippi-born singer: "It was like he could turn it on and off like a faucet."

Rhys Meyers became "a huge fan" during filming. He also got a taste of Presley's unmatched stardom.

"It's fun being onstage with all the girls screaming your name," he says. "You can only imagine what it must have been like."